Pied Sided Corn Snakes for sale in the UK

Pied Sided puts white patches on the lower sides of a diffused corn snake, most often a bloodred. Because the amount of white varies a great deal from snake to snake, two pied sided parents can produce babies with none at all.

Appearance

Patchy white markings appear on the lower sides and belly, ranging from a trace to large areas. Breeders grade this expression as no, low, medium or high. A pied sided corn shows strong lateral and dorsal diffusion regardless of the amount of white, and there is little or no pattern anywhere on the body. The belly is plain white without checkers, and the scale centres may be translucent with some red or orange bleeding in. The tail follows the body, and the eyes have a black pupil with a colour that matches the body.

Hatchlings look very different, with a grey or tan ground and dark red, brown or burgundy saddles. The head is bald-looking and grey with very little pattern, but it fills in with dark orange or red as the snake grows. There may be spots of pied on top of the head. While the diffusion is there from hatching, the pied areas start out translucent and only turn white with age. This makes the white on a young animal hard to judge.

Genetics

Pied Sided is only seen on snakes that are also visual Diffused. Because it is carried mainly in bloodred lines, most of these animals are sold under the name Pied Sided Bloodred. The mode of inheritance is unproven. Although most breeders treat it as recessive and plan pairings that way, the amount of white follows no simple pattern. A pair of pied sided parents can give a clutch running from high white to no visible white. The listing for an animal that may carry it is Pos Pied Sided, and the hobby shortens the name to PS. There are two recognised lines, SMR and McDonald. This trait dates from the 1990s, when Walter Smith paired pied sided corns from Brad McDonald and Don Soderberg and got ordinary-looking bloodreds. McDonald and Soderberg carried the project on from there.